When Time Runs Out-Chapter 1
I once again woke up to find myself in the room of the strange girl that was acting as my hostess. I admitted to myself that being trapped in the Underworld wasn’t all bad. I didn’t need to eat and only really slept because I was bored and had nothing better to do. As kind as the young girl was, most of her things were from the 1940s and seemed ancient to me. Growing up I at least had a 3DS to play with, but her most interesting toy was a slinky. However as badly as I wanted to leave and try to find a way home, try to find a way to save my friends from whatever dangers awaited them, she would always stop me. “''You can't go out; it isn't your time yet'',” she would tell me, blocking me. Despite seemingly being a prisoner, she would never sound like she was threatening me and almost sounded worried. Obviously being in the Underworld was dangerous by itself, with very few people or even monsters being able to escape. However she sounded like there was something about me specifically that would cause even more danger in the future. I wondered if maybe monsters would be drawn to her small house if I left. I also wondered why she had a house in the Underworld and even what part of the Underworld I was in. Every time I would ask, she would only say “''It’s complicated''.” So besides a life of relative ease while I constantly worried if my friends were even alive or what was happening in the outside world, everything was going pretty well. In all honesty I didn’t even know how much time had passed since I had been down here. I felt completely isolated from the world, both the world of the living and the world of the dead. “Ash, can you get the door?” my hostess asked from the kitchen. “What?” I asked and a second later there was a knock on the door. She would do things like that a lot, asking me to respond to things before they even happened. It was mostly small things however, like running into the kitchen to turn off an egg timer seconds before it went off or seemingly knowing what cards I was about to play in Crazy Eights. I wondered if maybe she was a child of Apollo, but she would never tell me anything of her life, not even her name. As such, I was forced to avoid names all together and would gain her attention with conversation starters like Hi or Excuse me, at least during the rare moments when she didn’t seem to know I wanted to talk to her. “Someone is at the door; can you get that for me?” she said again, taking me from my trance. After living in almost silence for so long, a knock on the door was as alien to me as someone eating blue food. “Ok, I’ll be right there,” I said as I almost ran to the door. As nice as my hostess was, I needed to see other people if it meant getting a glimpse of the outside world. I flung the door open, which was already unlocked. When had that happened, as the doors were always locked. On the other side of the door was a guy dressed in a UPS like outfit, with a brown short sleeved shirt and shorts that matched his shirt. He had a big goofy smile on his face that instantly reminded me of Aisling when she would think of something mischievous. His salt and pepper hair was mostly hidden except on the sides by a brown hat that said OPS; which was the Olympian Postal Service for non-human shipping needs. “Special delivery,” the man said as he extended a clipboard to me and shifted a small box under his arm and had a small stack of letters in his pocket. “I just need a signature. I have a few deliveries here, one of which is for an Ashton Faith. Does he happen to reside at this residence?” “Yes,” I said hesitantly. “That is me.” “Good to hear. You are a hard man to find, has anyone ever told you that?” he asked in a joking manner. “I went to Camp Half-Blood and saw a guy that looked like you, but this message wasn’t meant for him.” “Wait, what is happening at Camp Half-Blood? Are my friends safe there? Who was the person you saw?” I asked in rapid succession. I wasn’t even sure what questions I was asking after the initial round of questioning. Eventually the guy made a zipping sound over his lips and I found myself unable to talk. “I’m just a simply messenger god I’m afraid and don’t have all the answers. All I know is that something big is about to happen,” he said with a wink and once again motioned to the clipboard. I found myself losing control of my body as my hand signed the paper and the delivery man took it back and filled my arms with a small box with a stack of letters on top. “Thank you and have a good day.” Then just like that the man vanished in a flash of bright light and the door slammed shut in my face, locking itself in the process. I stood in the front room a little bewildered before I heard another call from the kitchen. “Anything good?” she asked before walking in and taking the stack of letters out of my hand. “Let’s see; bill, bill, bill, apology letter, bill, jury duty, a copy of The Great Dictator is in the box, and look something for you.” “Thanks,” I said as I took the letter from her hand and gave it a once over. The handwriting on the letter was sloppy, but I could tell from the return address that it was from Aisling. There was also a big stamp along the front that said Not Current Address in big red letters. I instantly ripped the envelope open and looked at what was inside: Dear Ash, I haven’t heard anything from you or Kimi in awhile. Actually I haven’t really heard much from anyone at camp in at least a few weeks. I should be there in a few days and I think I found a way to find the Collector. Hope to see you soon. Your friend, Aisling And that was it. Questions started forming in my mind based on the few short sentences. The main one was why Aisling hadn’t heard anything from the camp in while, but what worried me more was that she would be going there soon. I scanned the letter for any kind of date, but there was nothing to determine any kind of timeframe to go by, meaning she may already be at the camp. “I can’t stay here any longer,” I said to her. “My friends are in trouble.” “So that is the sign I was waiting for,” she said placing the letters on the table. I glanced that them real fast and saw the one she had called an apology letter was from Hades himself. “Who are you?” I asked her. I had actually asked her this question at least a dozen times before, but she would jokingly tell me it was complicated and brush me off. However this time, she seemed willing to open up. “I guess I should start at the beginning. In life, I grew up in a time of great pain for the world, in fact the world seemed to be at war with itself. The news was always talking about a bombing in far off cities, thousands of people dying, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it,” she said sadly. “But around the age of twelve, I started seeing things, impossible things.” “Are you a demigod?” I asked her. Considering we were in the Underworld, age wasn’t really a factor so I wondered how long ago she lived. “No, nothing as amazing as that; but I did start seeing things beyond what demigods normally would. I saw monsters of course, but I also began to see the future as well. My parents thought I was crazy, but as the things I saw began to happen, I knew it wasn’t just a coincidence. Then a man in a wheelchair came to my front door and talked to me about something only I could do; something I was meant to do.” “You became the Oracle of Delphi,” I said, and she gave me a nod. “Yes, but not just any Oracle; I was the speaker of the Great Prophecy,” she said, a tear forming in her eye. So much tragedy caused by just a few short lines and some of the gods blamed me for it. One even cursed me for it, preventing my soul from ever leaving my body until my body was no more.” “Hades, everyone at Camp Half-Blood has heard that story,” I told her, which was true. For the longest time it was a mystery, even to Chiron, but after the Second Olympian War it was discovered why. “Yes, but there is another side of the story that you don’t know. After my soul was freed, my spirit tried to enter the Underworld but something went wrong. The curse was lifted, but my soul was still tied to the Mortal World because of the curse, as my soul was trapped there long after my time was over. It was torture, being trapped in a dead body and even after death, never being able to truly enter the Underworld. “You told me when I got here we were in the Underworld; so where are we now?” I asked her. I felt like I understood what she was saying, but it also felt like she was speaking another language. “We are and are not inside the Underworld,” she said and motioned to the door. “Follow me.” She walked me back to the front door and placed her hand on the lock, but hesitated before turning it and I heard the gears turn. When the latch finally turned, the sound seemed to echo through the entire house. The door swung open and I took a step out of the house, but she did not follow me. As I looked around, I could see the Underworld in the distance, but I also felt detached from it. The place where I was wasn’t anything like the stories I had heard about the three fields of the dead; instead I was in a place absent from all things except the ground, which just looked like flat paved concrete. “What is this place?” I asked her. “This is a place for lost souls; those not alive or dead. You may leave, but keep in mind that once you step foot off the front stairs, you will only have so much time before the remaining halves of your soul are ripped apart,” she explained. “You may survive, as your form is made from your soul taking hold of your demigod powers; but your body is back in the Mortal World.” “By any chance, do you have any good news?” I asked her and she gave me a small half smile. As I looked at her, her eyes turned green and began to glow. She was about to tell me a prophecy. 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